Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary features one of the most intimate and spectacular views of the sandhill crane migration that occurs along the Platte River in Nebraska.

The five mile stretch of river covered by this camera is one of the most densely populated sandhill crane roosts in the world with 100,000-200,000 cranes at the height of migration. Groups of cranes stay around three weeks once they arrive to this location and the best times to view them on the river is early mornings and evenings. The morning liftoff either happens slowly, with smaller groups of cranes leaving as the sun continues to rise, or more frequently with tens of thousands of sandhill cranes leaving all at once in a cloud that blots out the sky. Sandhill cranes return to the river in the evening to spend the night on the river’s shallow sandbars. Groups of cranes pour into the river silhouetted by the setting sun as they dance and socialize before falling asleep.